Zubin Mehta's concert mesmerises Kashmir

Soulful strains of some of the most popular and best known western classical music compositions reverberated in the majestic backdrop of Zabarwan Hills when Zubin Mehta, world famous conductor, performed before a mesmerised audience in the Shalimar Gardens on the banks of Dal Lake here this evening.

Soulful strains of some of the most popular and best known western classical music compositions reverberated in the majestic backdrop of Zabarwan Hills when Zubin Mehta, world famous conductor, performed before a mesmerised audience in the Shalimar Gardens on the banks of Dal Lake here this evening.

In a unique setting in the 400-year-old Mughal Garden with its magnificent chinars, some as old as 300 years and more, Mehta and his Bavarian State Orchestra played its full cast of works of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Franz Joseph Haydn and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in front of an invited audience of 1,500 guests.

The concert kicked off with the maestro leading the orchestra in concert with Abhay Sopori's troupe with traditional Kashmiri instruments.

The concert, 'Ehsaas-e-Kashmir'(Feel of Kashmir), assumed political overtones following opposition by separatists and civil society, which saw it as an attempt to present a picture of peace in Kashmir which had witnessed so much bloodshed in recent decades.

The city remained mostly shut at the call of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the concert.

Setting the tone for the concert, the 77-year-old music maestro started by saying in Hindi, "Hum bahut khush hain, (I am very happy). I have waited and dreamt of this moment for years.

"Where are all those whose music we have heard inadvertently. 'Agli baar se to yeh sab muft hona chahiye'.Music sabke liye hona chahiye (the next time, this should be free for everyone. Music should be for everyone) and it should not be for a select few.

"We only want to do good. Music must go out from here to all our friends everywhere... to all Kashmiris."

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah started by quoting the famous couplet by Amir Khusrau "that if there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here. Shalimar Bagh once again comes alive with the sound of music.

German Ambassador in India Michael Steiner, who hosted the concert, said, "The distance between Munich and Srinagar is 7,756-km.

Today, the distance reduces to zero. German and European cultural heritage bow to Kashmir, to its history, to its beauty and to its difficult reality and journey."

"The world is looking at you, Ehsaas-e-Kashmir," he said, going on to quote Kashmiri poet Habba Khatun and German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke.

While acknowledging the support of the state government and the chief minister, Steiner said, "I thank you all, but most of all I thank you all Kashmiris".

Holding of the concert fulfils a long-cherished wish of the Mumbai-born Mehta, who brushed aside the controversies surrounding it, saying that he was extremely happy to be performing here. "I did not choose Kashmir, Kashmir chose me."